Posts Tagged ‘Resident Evil Revelations’

For all the flack Resident Evil 5 has taken, I would prefer it a million different ways than 6 or even Revelations. And here’s why.

Weapons are your friend

Speaking just for myself, I really prefer running through the campaigns of games I buy. Mercenaries in RE games is good to play now and again, particularly for leveling up purposes, but I am mostly after campaign scenarios. I like following the story, but that’s just me.

In 5, you can collect the weapons and once you’ve gathered all of them, you can pick and choose. Except for the Gatling gun which only Chris can use, and the Bow&Arrow for Sheva, everything’s usable for both characters. Upgrade the ones you are most comfortable with and you’ll be set for all future gameplays. Of course, if for some reason, you’d like to play a handicap game, you can purchase new versions on the store, and you can use those fresh but weak ones however which way you want.

Plus, fully upgrade a weapon and you can buy an infinite ammo upgrade for it. Useful for all those hours of Zombie-blasting fun. Only the grenade launcher is exempt from this feature, but at least you have the rocket launcher – just beat the game in under 5 hours.

In 6, your character dictates what weapons you can wield. Coming from 5, that’s a big disappointment. I like playing Chris’ campaign but can’t use any magnum-caliber weapon. Other scenarios don’t have grenade launchers. Fortunately, unlimited ammo is achievable for most of the weapons. Grenade launcher has infinite option here, but no RPG!

Revelations, now here is where it gets annoying. The weapons are varied enough, but only Jill can equip “custom parts” and customize her weapons. Parker, Keith and Chris don’t have access to weapon boxes, depriving them the ability to upgrade their weapons. Plus their inventory don’t carry over. It’s annoying, for example, that when you get to Episode 11, playing Parker, you always start off with just 15 Machine Gun ammo and four handgun ammo. On Casual and Normal difficulties, this will get you through fine ‘til you get to the part where you rescue Raymond. But on Hell mode (3DS version), it really gets hellish as the hunter you encounter at the start seems like a bullet sponge.

Infinite RPG is unlockable if you manage to beat Hell mode in 3DS or Inferno on other consoles. But Jill is the only one who can use it. No other weapons get the infinite ability.

Weapons are upgradeable but only to a point. You need parts to add abilities and features, and the good parts are terribly hard to come by. I hate playing around a whole day just to get rewarded with weak parts.

At least in 5 and 6, you can grind yourself through mercenaries and even the campaigns and you’re assured that you can get the good upgrades once you scraped enough points. In RE Revelations, you can work your ass off and still not get anything worthwhile for your effort. The store in Revelations offer different merchandise each time you come in. But a lot of what is there is pure crap, and are only usable in raid mode.

Costumes make it fun

Revelations on other consoles other than the 3DS offer unlockable costumes for use in both campaign and raid modes. 5 had this from the get-go, while 6 wouldn’t allow any alternate costume in campaign mode. There are some available for the Mercenaries mode, and that’s it.

The story as an anchor

Story-wise, I like 5’s better than 6 and Revelations because it felt non-contrived compared to the other two.

In 6, it’s annoying to have Leon run around with Helena without knowing what was the deal with her. There was really no reason she couldn’t have told him what he needed to know without having to show him first. Had she done so in the first place, they would have made better decisions. Instead, they got a lot of people killed. Those poor souls at the cathedral! Helena, despite being forced to do things against her will, is still a big part of the reason the US President is dead. It’s not like she had a device stuck on her chest controlling her like Jill had. I would think that’s a big deal, but in the RE Universe, the US government is apparently tolerant of such deeds. She even got her badge back.

But the most annoying plot of all is that of Revelations. In order to expose the evil that is Lansdale, the head of the BSAA – Clive R. O’Brian – connives with Raymond and cooks up a convoluted entrapment plan. He put his department and his men and women in direct harm’s way. Way to stir up the bee’s nest, considering they didn’t know for sure what they can get out of it.

I’d like to believe that in a sane world, O’Brian would pay for his rash actions as much as Lansdale would!

Last year, Resident Evil Revelations came exclusively for the 3DS platform. It was a great game, not without its quirks, but reviews were for the most part positive. This year, Capcom is releasing the game on other consoles, namely the PS3, XBox, WiiU, and the PC. Sadly, Vita owners are left off the action.

The game has been released here locally since yesterday, 2013.05.22, although officially, it’s slated release is for 2013.05.24. What’s cool about this is not only are we Pinoy gamers able to play early on (except PC players, Steam won’t let them play just yet), but the preorder bonanza offers a handy messenger bag, and a special poster! Though I owned the 3DS version, I preordered this as soon as the store opened the promo. Now I’ve got my copy plus the bonus items, and all for Php 1,495 (discounted from the SRP of Php 1,595). Couldn’t be any more sweeter a deal than that!

Anyway, the official site of the game, ResidentEvil.net, has been running with the Revelations along with RE6 for sometime now. Present Codes that unlock weapons that can be used in-game were all the fuzz these past weeks leading to the game’s release. You can check out what available codes are still up in this helpful forum in the Capcom website. Granted, most of those guns suck, but hey, they’re free and can be useful when starting out in the game.

I’ve seen the game played online on one of those game sites, as a preview for those who are interested, curious or otherwise. I can say the game is exactly how I remember it on the 3DS, except of course, no 3D effect. And that’s not such a bad thing.

I snatched up some character images from the site, and these show off the various skins for the characters. Here, have a look!

Head over to this previous post to learn more about these characters, or read my sort-of-review of the 3DS version here, but be warned, spoilers abound!

Here’s the thing, I’m a big fan of the RE franchise. And I mean a BIG fan! I watched all the craptastic movies and actually enjoyed them. I still play Resident Evil 3 when I’m feeling nostalgic. I have the PC and PS3 Gold Edition of Resident Evil 5. I bought a Nintendo 3DS handheld just so I can play Resident Evil Revelations.

But for all the novelty of playing a 3D game on handheld, when the initial excitement wears off, you’re faced with just the game. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a pretty good game which actually managed to recapture the essence of the Resident Evil world, that is survival horror.

But there are things I wish the game developers did differently. Things like:

1. A Partner Who’s Actually Useful

In Resident Evil 5, you have Sheva. Although she’s a bit of annoying – getting in the way of perfect shots, getting killed sometimes (Rocket Launcher) in the process, and being too trigger-happy with not a care on your precious limited ammo supply – at least she’s good for something. Put her on attack mode, and she’s perfect bait. She’s there to bail you out when you’re knee-deep in sh*t, and she does manage to kill her share of the baddies.

In Revelations, your partner is everything that Sheva isn’t. They don’t get in the way. They don’t waste your ammo because they have their own seemingly infinite supply, and they appear to be immortal.

Good traits for a partner. Except… they’re too disconnected, ineffectual, useless. They can’t kill any but the most pathetically weak enemies. They won’t help out when a monster is sucking your life dry. They can’t even serve purposely as bait.

2. No Chapter Selection for Campaign Mode

The beauty of RE5 is you can drop in to any chapter if you so choose. You can visit the swamp to pick up a rocket launcher for use in other chapters. You can go back and kill those nasties that gave you a hard time the first time around. You can farm and stock up on ammo to prepare for future fights.

Not so with Revelations. While Raid Mode holds a lot of replay value, where you are able to select the stage to fight in, solo or with a partner via the Internet, the Campaign mode can only be played forward until you reach the end. It does save your current progress (automatically, by default), but if you wanted to replay the last chapter (or episode, as they’re called in the game), you’re out of luck. You have to go back to the beginning to do that.

3. No infinite ammo for any weapon except Rocket Launcher

In RE5, you can save up points and money points to buy yourself a nice ticket to trigger-happy land where ammo is no issue. Every weapon save for the grenade launcher has the potential to be upgraded to an infinite killing machine.

But for revelations, all you have are loadable customization items that you pick up while running around in the game or otherwise defeating enemies. While they add value to your weapons, there’s a caveat. Some weapons can only have so many custom parts attached. And the really good ones don’t appear ‘til you get to the harder parts.

You do have the Rocket Launcher, which have the unlockable infinite ammo capacity. That is, until you manage to get through HELL mode. And believe me, you’ll have one hell of a time trying to do that! So good luck, you’ll need it!

4. Random Weapon Drops and Random Items in Store

In Raid Mode, you can pick up new weapons if you snag the weapons cases lying around in stages, or if you kill some enemies (bosses mostly). Problem is, you can’t choose what weapons you get. Not even in the store. Oh by the way, the store is only for Raid Mode. You don’t have that option during Campaign.

The randomness in the weapons dropped I get. But for you to have to get in and out of the store repeatedly just ‘til you find something useful is absolutely a bad idea. Not to mention, you have to examine items carefully, as weapons of the same level (yeah, there are levels) are not created equal. Some have plenty of custom part slots, some have few, and others don’t even have them at all.

The levels of weapons you can buy from the store depends on your current player level, which max out at 50. But weapons from the store are limited to level 48. There are rare weapons, but you’d be extremely lucky to find high-level Pale Riders, Drakes or Muramasas in there.

So you’re left to farm on the advanced stages on Abyss (Hardest) Raid Mode. What’s annoying is you can play through those stages a whole day and still come out empty-handed or at best with low-level (read: weak) weapons and custom parts.

Something about leaving it all out to luck to get the right weapon and custom parts you want or need just rubs me the wrong way!

5. Turning off the Background Music Kills the Dialogue

Background music, creepy and antagonizing as they may be for games of this genre, serve a purpose. I respect that. It adds to the atmosphere of the game. But I find it hard to concentrate so I usually just turn them off.

Imagine my surprise when I realized the dialogue spoken by the characters is part of that background music! Seriously?! I had to put the volume for BGM down to the lowest level just so I can play at ease. But now I have to compromise with straining my ears during cutscenes just to hear what the characters are saying.

Last December I bought my first Nintendo handheld, a flame-red 3DS. Got me the Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D and a few weeks after, Thor. Resident Evil: Revelations is coming any day now. As soon as it comes out, I’m adding it to my collection!

But before that, I placed an order online for the Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Collector’s Edition – straight from the U.S. of A. Supposed to arrive January, but it’s been pushed back. Something to do with the holidays, I was told. So I’m still eagerly awaiting for it to arrive this February.

Months before that, I bought the Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition for the PS3. I already have the PC version which I bought days after its original release more than two years ago.

For the longest time, I’ve been pining for a PlayStation 3. Being away from home for most of the month, though, I couldn’t justify buying one. But this past weekend, I tossed all reasoning behind and went ahead and bought me a black, 320-Gig PS3 Slim.

To complete the ensemble, I picked up a copy of the box set of Uncharted 1 and 2.

Also on the weekend, I’ve placed yet another order, for the PSVita (US Version). It’s only for the Wi-fi version as it seems the 3G versions over there works only on a particular network. No matter, wi-fi’s good enough for my needs, err, wants.

Now I’m on the hunt for a good display, one that supports full HD. I’ve originally planned to get a 32-inch Samsung Series 5 LED TV but I’m scrapping that plan. Too expensive for something I’d only use for gaming and occasional TV watching. I think I’d go for a monitor instead. The HP Sword X2301 looks promising. Not as big, but it’s still big enough.

All this spending has set me back a couple month’s salary. At least I have these things to show for it, instead of watching all that cash go poof!

I’ve been playing Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D for almost two weeks now, and although I keep dying trying to kill the major bosses, I rally on. You wouldn’t believe the quality of the graphics, and for a handheld console game, that’s really an achievement by itself.

Incidentally, the game features a 5-minute preview of the soon to be released Resident Evil: Revelations. The latest installment of this franchise will reach European gamers on January 27th, while state-side, the game is set for a February 7th release. I can only hope that local release will coincide with those dates.

Revelations is actually the reason I bought a Nintendo 3DS console. I’ve bought along the Mercenaries 3D to test it out. At 8 characters, 5 alternate costumes, 34 medals, and more than half of the skills unlocked, I’m still looking forward to every game I play. Online co-op mode also makes it interesting when it gets too intense or just to change the pace. In fact, a handful of the achievements can only be unlocked thru co-op mode.

Revelations couldn’t come soon enough. Fortunately, the game’s official site offers a wealth of information for us fans – from characters, new monsters, back story, game play, even video previews. So head on out here to check them out.

In the mean time, I’ll leave you with these screen shots I’ve swiped from the linked address above. I hope Capcom won’t mind.

A member of the BSAA, an NGO founded by the Global Pharmaceutical Consortium.

She is one of the few known survivors of the Raccoon City Incident. Following the dissolution of Umbrella in 2003, she and Chris Redfield decided to continue the fight against bioterrorism and joined the BSAA.

During this mission, Jill boards a mysterious cruise ship to find Chris.

Parker carries out his missions with unwavering earnestness. He tries to mask his seriousness and occasional clumsiness with sarcasm, and he is known for becoming very passionate about his beliefs. Following the events of a certain incident, he transfers to the BSAA to "fight the good fight."